Soup! (inspired by ehbeth and edgar)

Soup I make. Yum. Back when I can think.

Roasted Vegetable Soup

Roast an assortment of vegetables (I tend to use tomatoes, pumpkin or butternut squash, onions, a whole head of garlic, fennel bulbs, red pepper, carrot and celery)

Put the roasted veggies in a stock pot ad cover with vegetable stock (chicken stock works too,)

Cook for at least 15 minutes. Use an immersion blender to puree or put the soup into the blender in batches. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and strips of fresh basil.


This is my all time favorite soup. Roasting gives the soup a caramelly backnote that is fabulous.

Lentil Vegetable Soup

1 cup brown or orange lentils (we use brown)
1 tsp salt
3 cups water
1/2 tsp each thyme & marjoram
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups finely chopped carrots
3 cups finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped tender celery ( 1 heart)
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1 28oz/796ml can tomatoes
1/4 cup dry sherry

In a medium saucepan combine lentils, salt, water. thyme and marjoram.
Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan and saute carrots, onions and celery for 5 to 8 minutes or until softened and translucent. Add the lentil mixture, parsley, tomatoes and sherry. Bring to a boil, covered; reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

6 generous servings

** This is the original recipe. I like to soak the lentils overnight in water (like you would beans) and cook them in chicken stock instead of water the next day. It makes a richer soup.

There are quite a few good soup recipes in the A2K portal. Here's a link if you're curious:

http://search.able2know.com/Home___Garden/Food___Drink/Recipes/Soups/index.html

There was a time in my life when I ate soup. Many years ago.

Are you ok, flushd?

Can I send you money?

One of my favorite soups to make is made with potatoes, leeks and onions.

I fry up a couple strips of bacon, toss in several sliced up leeks and onions (use the entire leek), add a few sliced garlic cloves, 6 diced potatoes and a cup each of water and salt-free chicken stock with a slice of lemon peel. Cook until vegetables are tender, add 1 can of condensed skim milk, a dash of nutmeg, pepper, thyme, rosemary and a squeeze of lemon (sometimes I add a dash of curry). I either eat as is, or blend it with a hand blender for a few seconds. For variations, I sometimes add diced ham and carrots to the soup.

Alright! Thanks all. These are some good ones. Guess I shoulda done a search first, eh.

Gus, you can send me money anytime. But it's charity, see, not a business deal. Gotta be careful with the old school dudes...

Butryflynet, we're talking about leek and potato soup over on the What did you have for dinner thread recently too.

I post about soups all the time, and will back off here to not just shower soup on y'all. Mine are mostly 'found soup' - as in this is what I bought at the market, this was in the fridge or the garden... I call them kitchen soups or refrigerator soups. On another thread (the dinner one again) MsOlga has been gently instructing me on mung beans in soup. I've bought the mung beans, haven't made the soup yet.

Tai Chi's lentil soup sounds neat.

flushd, our local vegetable producer, Peak of the Market, has a good website, with over 200 soup recipes. Have a look at the recipe archive.

Peak of the Market

A few years ago, someone from the cookstalk site I go to asked people to sign up for daily emailed recipes from Peak of the Market. In exchange, Peak of the Market was making donations to a food bank.

I've been getting the recipes since. Some are fantastic. Others are on the polite side of so-so. Overall, worth signing up for.

I signed up for that very reason, ehBeth, the donations to the food bank.

I love soup!

I promised JPB I'd post this. It's one of my favorite recipes. I got it off the internet, but now I can't remember the website where I found it. As with most of my recipes, I've made a few changes to suit my particular tastes. Preparing all of the ingredients takes a while, but then you just throw everything into the pot and relax for two hours.

Portuguese Stone Soup*

8 cups chicken stock
1/2 lb linguiça** or chorizo, diced
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 lb potatoes, peeled and diced
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes
1 small head savoy cabbage, chopped
1 lb turnips, peeled and diced
2 leeks (white and light green parts), chopped
2 large carrots, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf

Combine all ingredients in large stock pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until soup is thick, stirring occasionally, about two hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*It's called "stone soup" because the kidney beans are called "stones" by the Portuguese. Or, at least, that's what the website said. I'm waiting for a genuine Portuguese person to confirm this.

**Linguiça is a spicy Portuguese sausage. Unless you live in Rhode Island or southeastern Massachusetts, you probably don't have a Portuguese deli in your neighborhood, so you can substitute Spanish or Mexican chorizo or some other kind of spiced sausage.

That looks like a great recipe!

Mr. M loves soup and I know just the place to pick up some chorizo sausage. I'm going to make it tomorrow. Thanks for posting the recipe.

Yum! I know what I'm making for dinner tomorrow. Thanks, joe.

Saturdays is traditionally "soup day" in our family.

I carry on with this tradtion :wink:

This recipe is rather simple.

Lentile soup:

(serves about four, measures/amount is always "circa")

½ lb. dried lentiles (preferrable the small ones)
4 larger potatoes
¼ lb. carrots
¼ lb. celery root
¼ lb. leek
4 cups of vegetable stock
4 cups of bouillion
4 tablespoon of white balsamico

4 Francfurter or Vienna sausages
and/or
smoked pork chop (if you like)

butter
chives


Cook the lentilles in the vegetable stock - if you've taken the very smalls, it should be done in 30 - 40 mins.

Slice the vegatable in really very small pieces, sweat it in a second pot with butter. Add the bouillion. Cook for about 15 mis.

Add the lentilles (and the smoked pork chop, cut before in small pieces).
Cook a couple of minutes, season to taste with the balsamico, add the sausages.
Decorate with chives (or persil).

mckenzie and JPB: Let me know how it turns out!
Walter: that looks great. I'll have to try it.

Here's another of my favorites...

BROCCOLI CHEESE SOUP

Another recipe that I got off the interwebs that I altered. It's great because it's versatile -- I've made it with cauliflower and asparagus as well as broccoli. I love really thick cream soups, but the original recipe called for thickening the soup with a white sauce, which adds a fair bit of work to a recipe that is already pretty involved to begin wth. So I changed the recipe to use corn starch, which saves a lot of time and effort and doesn't affect the taste at all.

1 lb broccoli (about two bunches, more or less)
1 large onion, chopped
5 tb butter, divided
6 cups chicken stock, divided
1 tsp oregano
1 cup milk or cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 tb corn starch (more or less, depending on desired consistency)
3 tb dijon mustard (optional)

1. Cut florets off broccoli stalks and divide into small pieces. Saute in 3 tbsp of butter until soft, about ten minutes. Set aside.

2. Take about the top three inches of the remaining broccoli stalks (peel if necessary) and chop into small pieces. Saute chopped broccoli stalks and chopped onions in remaining butter until onions are translucent, about five minutes.

3. Add 3 cups of chicken stock and oregano; bring to boil and then simmer 20 minutes.

4. Process in food processor or with immersion blender until smooth.

5. Add broccoli florets and remaining stock; heat to low boil.

6. Add cheese and stir until melted.

7. Mix corn starch and milk/cream and mustard (optional) and add slowly; simmer an additional five minutes or until soup has achieved desired consistency. Add salt and peper to taste.

OPTIONS

Asparagus Cheese Soup: same as above, except cut the heads off the asparagus spears in step one and chop the remaining spears in step two.

Cauliflower Cheese Soup: same as above, except cut the florets off about one medium bunch of cauliflower in step one and chop the remaining stalks in step two.

Wait until I've tried to figure the details .... and then to translate that ... of my real favourite soup: Walter's pea soup. :wink:

I made split pea soup this weekend -- one of my favorites! I look forward to the Hinteler family version.

Another recipe that I make all the time...

VEGETABLE-HAM SOUP WITH PASTA

This is courtesy of my good friend Betty Crocker, with some slight alterations. I'm posting it here so in case I lose the cookbook I'll still have this recipe. It's a terrific way to use fennel (I'm sure you have some sitting in the fridge right now). The fennel adds an interesting bite to this soup, and the crushed red pepper gives it a spicy kick.

1 large fennel bulb, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup uncooked rotini, farfalle, or other medium pasta
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 cup water
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) chicken broth
2 cups cooked smoked ham (about 1/2 lb), diced
1 tbsp olive oil

1. Saute fennel, onion, and carrot in oil until onions are translucent, about ten minutes.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients except ham; heat to boiling, cover and simmer until pasta is tender, about ten minutes.

3. Add ham; heat about two minutes until ham is hot.

Walter's pea soup



Serves 4
(takes a night plus at least three hours preparation :wink: )

1 lb. dried green peas (you can take yellow peas as well)

4 greater potatoes

2 carrots, leek, cellery

2 smoked sausages (I suppose, you could use Polish sausages instead)

2 Francfurter/Vienna sausage

Smoked pork chop


Actually, you needed the bone of a smoked ham ... with some meat on it.
Since that seems to be impossible, take

1 liter „strong" beef stock

---------------------

Water the peas in plenty water over night.
Cook it in the same water (!) with the small cut vegatable.
When the water reduces to much, add up with the stock.
The peas should be fine (= softish") after about two hours.

Take out about half of the peas, vegatables and pass that through a sieve.

Put it back, cook the mixture again and add the smoked meat and sausages, later the Francfurters.

Add some salt, pepper if necessary. (My trick: add some mustard instead)

Before serving, cut the meat & sausages in small pieces ... so that everyone gets equal.

Serve with a small baguette (roll).


Variation: pass all of the peas through a sieve. (That's more like a Dutch pea soup - you can reduce the sausages/meat and add some bread-croutons instead)